Now anyone can hail a Waymo robotaxi in downtown Phoenix

Summary

Waymo has opened up its fully driverless ride-hail service in downtown Phoenix to members of the general public. The expansion in Phoenix is yet another sign of Waymo’s accelerated push toward commercialization. It comes a day after Waymo secured its driverless deployment permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which allows Waymo to charge for autonomous services, like delivery, in San Francisco. More importantly, it’s a prerequisite to securing the California Public Utilities Commission’s own driverless deployment permit, which Waymo needs to operate a commercial robotaxi service with no human safety operator in the city. Waymo's service in downtown Phoenix will mirror the one it has operated in Chandler, Arizona since 2020. It will be a paid rider-only service that’s available 24/7 to anyone who downloads the app and hails a ride in Waymo’s service area. Waymo said this is an important step as it plans to expand the service to even more of the downtown area in coming months. Earlier this month, Waymo also launched rides, with a driver in the front seat, to Phoenix’s airport from the city’s downtown. The service is currently only available to trusted testers, but will likely expand using the same recipe Waymo has used throughout its many expansions — Waymo will probably next test fully driverless rides to the airport with employees before opening that up to trusted testers, and then finally to members of the public.

Q&As

AI Comments

👍 This is a great article and it is really exciting that Waymo is expanding its driverless ride-hail service to downtown Phoenix!

👎 I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the idea of driverless cars, especially ones that are hailing people. I think this is a safety hazard and I'm not sure if I would trust a driverless car.

AI Discussion

Me: It's about how Waymo has opened up its driverless ride-hail service in downtown Phoenix to members of the general public.

Friend: That's interesting. I wonder how well it will work.

Me: I'm not sure. But it's definitely a sign of the company's accelerated push toward commercialization.

Friend: Yeah. I'm curious to see how this develops.

Action items

• Download the Waymo app and hail a ride in the downtown Phoenix area.
• Try out the fully driverless ride-hail service and provide feedback to Waymo.
• Keep an eye out for Waymo's expansion to other areas of downtown Phoenix in the coming months.

Technical terms

Waymo

A self-driving technology development company that is a subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc.

Robotaxi

A driverless taxi.

Phoenix

The capital and largest city of Arizona.

Chandler

A city in Arizona.

Jaguar I-Pace

An electric SUV manufactured by Jaguar Land Rover.

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